Month: April 2012

It looks like Amazon.com outed the next God of Wargame. It’s apparently going to be called God of War: Ascension. Obviously, the release date of Dec. 31, 2013, is an estimation. According to the trailer, that’s attached to the page it’s a prequel. It takes place before or just after the original God of War. Here’s what it says in the trailer:

“Many know the legend of Kratos, the mortal turned god who brought down the very walls of Olympus, but there was a time before Kratos became the monster known as the Ghost of Sparta. A time when something other than rage consumed him, a time when in spite of the madness that plagued him, Kratos would break his blood oath to an unjust god, a time when he would no longer be bound in blood.”

Kate McGarry is certainly one of the more intriguing vocalists in jazz today.

I’ve yet to see the young star in concert, but I’d like to correct that situation ASAP. Fortunately, I have an excellent chance to do just that: McGarry performs Friday (April 20) as part of SFJAZZ’s spring season. The concert will take place at the Swedish American Hall, which is one of the best places to experience live music in all of San Francisco. Continue Reading →

I sure am – and I’m sure I’m not alone in that regard. I am really looking forward to seeing the Belgium
indie-rock star in concert on Wednesday (April 18) at the revitalized Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Continue Reading →

The reunion tour by the famed Britpop band, which originally called it quits back in 2002, has been one of the season’s hottest tickets – especially in the Bay Area, where Pulp sold out San Francisco’s 2,200-capacity Warfield in roughly five minutes.

And it’s no mystery why – the British band boasts an incredibly deep songbook, an armful of alt-rock hits that just seem to get better with each passing year and, most treasured of all, fantastic front-man Jarvis Cocker. Continue Reading →

Even when the Counting Crows actually were a hot, young band – back in the days when most music fans used the word “digital” only in reference to their alarm clocks – the Bay Area rock group didn’t seem the part.

Instead, the Crows felt amazingly familiar and comforting, especially in an era, the early ‘90s, dominated by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and other groundbreaking alt-rock acts. You’d hear a Crows song, even for the first time, and it immediately seemed like one you’d been listening to for years. Continue Reading →

If you ever wanted to experience what it’s like to work for a newspaper, this Republia Times newspaper simulator does a good job of it as long as you’re fine with being a journalist in a country like North Korea. Players have to design a front page, using stories that come across a feed. It’s a simple press. Just drag and drop. The key is using news judgment and knowing something about design to get the highest score. If you’re a newspaper designer, you’ll find it eerily lifelike.

Much has been said about Phil Fish, the lead designer of Fez. He caused a small uproar at the Game Developers Conference in March with his contention that Japanese games are terrible (to put it mildly). There’s nothing wrong with opinionated developers, but if one is going to make a statement like that in front of someone who happens to be a Japanese developer, it’s best to be polite and phrase it better.

The comment irked some fans so much that they decided to boycott Fish’s game. And that’s a shame. It speaks for a need to separate artists from their creations. The visionaries who come up with masterpieces aren’t saints. They have their flaws and human weaknesses. Celebrated writer Yukio Mishima killed himself via seppuku after a failed coup attempt in Japan in 1970. Filmmaker Elia Kazan named names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. But those acts and political stances shouldn’t detract from the masterpieces they made. In the long run, it’s the work that speaks for itself rather than the artist. And the same should be said for Fish and Fez.

I’ve experienced it firsthand on a number of occasions. The first was at a 1995 gig at the Event Center at San Jose State University, and the most memorable was the British group’s majestic headlining performance at the inaugural Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park in 2008.

Radiohead’s latest Bay Area outing, Wednesday at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, fell well short of that mark. It was still an enjoyable enough affair, but one that offered up an equal amount of magical and mundane moments. Continue Reading →

I’ve been playing Fez for the past few days. Polytron Corporations’ new title is so dense with puzzles that it’s daunting at times. Eventually, I got stuck. One of the things I noticed was the hieroglyphic code written on key places. I had some spare time on my hands a decoded the ancient Fez alphabet. It’ll especially be helpful if you want to figure out what’s going on. You can thank me later when Fez comes out on Xbox Live Arcade on April 13. (That’s two days from now.)

The first stop on the band’s San Francisco-only tour – which consists of six concerts in six nights at six local venues – was Café Du Nord. From there, the itinerary called for stops at the Great American Music Hall (Wednesday), Bimbo’s 365 Club (Thursday), Slim’s (Friday), the Independent (Saturday) and, finally, the legendary Fillmore (Sunday). Continue Reading →